SLAMMIN' GOOD TIME BRUINS DEMOLISH LISTLESS TROJANS UCLA 90, USC 69.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

UCLA players, even coach Ben Howland, made it clear earlier in the week a trip to frigid Notre Dame isn't desirable right now, but at least when they board the plane this morning they should have a few nice thoughts.

In need of a win to get closer to an NCAA berth, UCLA battered an inferior, quit-long-ago team, and smiled about it.

Led by freshman Arron Afflalo's career-highs of 22 points and nine rebounds and a 60.7 shooting percentage, UCLA put on a dunking exhibition in the second half and pummeled the Trojans 90-69 Thursday in front of 12,823 at sold out Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA, which won at USC last month, swept the season series for the first time since 2000-01, and took much delight in it by following up several dunks with finger pointing to the crowd.

``This is beautiful. It's beautiful,'' Afflalo said. ``To sweep 'SC for the first time in four or five years, it's a beautiful thing. It's not about who played well or what matchups are key. It's about the W.''

UCLA senior Dijon Thompson, who scored 17 points, said USC stopped playing hard, and it was easy for him to tell.

``Layup after layup after layup. Back cuts. The same stuff,'' Thompson said as his reasoning. ``It was real fun. Very fun. Just out there playing basketball, playing as a team, sharing the ball. It was just fun. I don't think we had this many (dunks) even in an exhibition game. It can't be better coming against 'SC, at the end of my senior year.''

Sixty of the last 61 teams to finish a Pacific-10 conference season with 11 wins reached the NCAA tournament, and the Bruins (15-9, 9-7 Pacific-10) moved a step closer. Fourth-place UCLA moved within a half-game of third-place Stanford, which lost at Oregon State.

The Bruins finish league play next week by hosting the Beavers and Oregon, but the side trip to Notre Dame looms large since UCLA doesn't have a big road win on its resume. A win against the Irish would change that.

``I'm a happy guy,'' Howland said. ``But what I told the team after the game was that I felt this good last Thursday night up at Cal and then we came out and didn't play the way we want to at (Stanford). That's what we want to build on.

``You look at two of our last three games (Cal and USC), they've been two of our best performances all year. So I feel good about how we're playing right now.''

USC, which trailed by as much as 32 points in the second half, remains mathematically alive to reach the eight-team Pac-10 tournament, even if the Trojans (11-16, 4-12) are lifeless on the court.

``We laid an egg,'' USC interim coach Jim Saia said. ``We lost our assignments and guys got caught up in the crowd and didn't execute.''

UCLA sliced through a stagnant USC defense, passing over and through the Trojans. And when it wasn't an easy lay-in or dunk for a basket, it was a wide-open jumper or an easier-than-imaginable offensive rebound. UCLA made 19 of 30 shots (63.3 percent) in the half.

Factor in an undisciplined, inexplicable offensive mish-mosh from USC, which felt more at home tossing up fadeaway 3-pointers and not getting back on defense than working the ball inside to Jeff McMillan, and it's why the Bruins held a 49-33 lead at the half.

It was the most points the Bruins scored in the first half this season, but it took a hard foul by USC's Gregg Guenther, a former tight end, to spark UCLA. Guenther hit Josh Shipp on a lay-in attempt with 5:09 left in the half, and was called for an intentional foul. That started a 14-0 run for the Bruins that didn't end until Lodrick Stewart's 3-pointer 66 seconds before the half.

And intermission did nothing to bring USC energy and didn't derail the Bruins from unselfish play. Nifty inside passing and a noticeable zest to go to the basket created more lay-ups, dunks and tip-ins than the Bruins saw in the last month combined. It also seemed to cut out USC's desire to play.

``I've been playing since I was five, and you know when a team is still playing, but they're not really competing,'' Afflalo said. ``That's the thing, you have to compete no matter what the score is.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) UCLA's Michael Fey reacts after scoring two points in the Bruins' 90-69 Pacific-10 Conference rout of USC at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday night.

(2) UCLA's Brian Morrison, left, pokes the ball away from USC's Gabriel Pruitt in Thursday's game.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Box

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(4) WOMEN'S TOP 25: LSU RUNS AWAY IN SECOND HALF